Phils Win, Dom Brown Tells Me Twice More to STFU

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Domonic Brown celebrates with Erik Kratz after Brown's second home run (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Holy crap, Domonic Mordecai Brown. (His actual middle name is Larun, but I prefer Mordecai.) This guy is having a month for the history books, and in the process, he's making the Phillies must-watch TV again, for the first time since they were actually, y'know, winning games. DomBro went yard twice tonight against the Boston Red Sox--both solo shots, natch--to raise his home-run total to ten for the month of May (13 for the season), powering the Phils to a 4-3 victory. He's currently tied for 2nd in the entire NL in dingers, just one behind the Braves' Justin Upton, and he is a game away from having the slightly dubious (but much more awesome) distinction of being the first player in MLB history to have ten homers and zero walks in the same month.

It's worth mentioning that just six-and-a-half days ago, I was doing some serious wondering about whether Dom was even having a good year or not, and positing him as the Phils' teasing equivalent of the Sixers' Evan Turner. Since then, the burners have been turned on full blast with our once-and-future prospect, and he's gone 8-22 with five blasts, turning his season from intriguing-but-flawed to OMG DOM BROWN COMES UP FIVE BATTERS FROM NOW LET'S KEEP IT ON THIS CHANNEL JUST IN CASE. I don't want to take 100% credit for my column prompting his offensive explosion, but 60% seems pretty reasonable.

Dom's two HR tallies were the headline from what was otherwise a pretty odd game of baseball. The Phils ran rampant on the base paths, rightly targeting pitch John Lackey's molasses-slow delivery and Jarrod Saltalamacchia's noodle arm behind the plate, with such base-stealing luminaries as John Mayberry Jr., Delmon Young (!!) and yes, the boy Domonic as well all earning swipes. However, all four steals amounted to naught, as the only runs the Phils cashed in this evening were on that ol' Philly phavorite, the solo home run. Dom had his two, and Ryan Howard and Erik Kratz each notched one, as the bails sailed into the hot summer night as if piloted by Christopher Cross.

That was enough, but it very nearly wasn't, as Jonathan Papelbon's perfect season threatened to come to a close on a Jacoby Ellsbury blooper to shallow left that Dom came a couple inches away from becoming a two-way hero by snagging, which scored the Sox' third run and brought Pap's nearly two-month-long scoreless streak to a close. But Dom recovered to the ball quickly enough to hold secondary runner Jonny Gomes at third on the play, and then Ryno fielded a hot grounder to first for the third out in the inning. Can't say this one wasn't entertaining, certainly.

One more to go in this double home-and-home, with Jonathan Pettibone taking the hill tomorrow night against Franklin Morales (in his first pitching action in the majors this year), with a chance to take the "series" and get the Phils back up to .500 for the first time since they were 6-6 back in mid-April. Another three DomBlasts should about do the trick, we figure.

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Some photos from the game:

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